The Mech Touch

Now that he decided to design a lancer mech that was oriented around Ylvaine, Ves made an earnest effort to translate this idea into a workable competition mech.

Designing a competition mech was a lot different from designing a proper mass market mech. Ves had to change his approach in so many different ways in order to adapt his work to the tournament setting.

For example, his lancer mech did not have to last a long time in the field. Duels generally didn't last a long time and the extreme fighting mode of his particular machine meant that Ves could forgo designing for longevity.

There was also another variable that caused him to deviate from his regular design approach. The fact that his lancer mech would be repaired after every match meant that it could be pushed beyond its limits.

As long as the mech didn't go too overboard, it was fine if it overloaded its systems for a dozen seconds or so! It would all be fixed after the match anyway, so Ves did not have to worry about excessive stress creating accumulated cracks and other damage to the internal systems.

He could easily increase the effective performance of his lancer mech by 20 percent if he disregarded its longevity and pursued the greatest possible short-term gains!

"Even if the repair systems can't fix every consequence of accelerated wear and tear, it shouldn't matter too much. My lancer mech only has to fight three short matches before it has served its purpose. There is absolutely no reason to account for any further use after today."

Ves believed that every other mech designer in the tournament opted to design their competition mechs in the same way as well. It would be stupid of them to forgo all that potential power just so that they could design their mechs as normal.

A good mech designer always adapted his work to the situation. That was a lesson that he had learned in many different instances. Working alongside Gloriana who paid a lot of attention to this aspect allowed him to fully realize how much of a difference it made.

For this reason, Ves had to fight against his habits and drop his usual insistence on designing a durable, long-lasting mech.

Although he designed such mechs before in past competitions, it had been a long time since he truly let himself go like this. He had to put more effort into making design choices that deliberately shortened the lifespan of his lancer mech in order to obtain modest boosts in several different performance parameters.

After several hours of design work, the divergence between his normal products and this competition mech became increasingly more clear.

A part of him felt pained for designing a living mech that was only meant to last a single day. This dayfly would barely have the opportunity to enjoy what it was like to exercise its prodigious power!

Ves wasn't sure what would happen after the competition mechs had served their use. He hadn't heard any mention of it in the rules. In general, they were usually broken down again so that the materials they were made of could be recycled and put to use in another competition.

However, there were also instances where the mechs would remain intact. Strictly speaking, the tournament organizers owned the mechs. It was up to them to decide whether they wanted to keep the machines for themselves or give them to the participants as extra gifts.

"There's little point for me to keep this mech, though."

Space aboard his fleet was limited. Taking up one extra mech slot just to hold a lancer mech that was completely impractical in real battles sounded like a vain and stupid decision.

"Well, if no one else wants it, then so be it. You'll just have to be content to shine brighter than any other mech in the short time that you're alive."

His lancer mech was like a supernova.

In cosmic terms, supernovae or exploding stars were incredibly powerful. They were not only capable of wiping out planets, but could also affect other star systems in the vicinity!

The downside was that they lasted only for an instant relative to the history of a galaxy. Still, their impact on the environment was huge despite lasting such a short time.

With these thoughts in mind, Ves embraced this metaphor as one of the themes of his mech design.

Working with themes was a recent addition to his design approach. Starting from the Bulwark Project, Ves sought to imitate the higher-level design methods that he had derived from his observations of the Olympus Mons.

The Shield of Samar and the Everchanger were the first two beneficiaries of his deliberate incorporation of themes into their designs.

The results were quite good. Not only did working with themes cause the living mechs to focus their strength and power in the desired directions, they also helped the expert pilots channel the various resonance abilities of their powerful machines with greater effect.

This was the first time he applied a design method to a standard mech, though.

Themes became more relevant when the mechs and mech pilots became more powerful and remarkable. They deeply influenced the performance of an ace mech and also could also play a role in concentrating the strengths of expert mechs.

What about normal mechs? How would themes affect a mech that did not possess any prime or resonating materials and would only be piloted by an ordinary person? Was it even worthwhile to bother with themes if there was no basis in power for them to act upon?

"No." Ves shook his head. "It's not useless. My last two expert mechs have already shown me how themes can affect my own work."

Living mechs were inherently complicated and multi-dimensional. Any form of intelligent life was complex to a degree. By designing them according to certain themes, Ves was basically influencing the way these complex lives expressed themselves.

It was not a particularly new technique, but working around the framework of themes helped turn it into a fixed method that could become a regular staple in his expanding toolbox.

As Ves worked the supernova concept into his lancer mech, he did not have the impression that his efforts were useless or counter-productive.

Instead, he could feel the life that he was shaping with his design efforts embrace and shape itself according to this theme.

What interested Ves a lot was that the supernova theme was not well-defined. Compared to other concepts such as hammers, physical force and so on, a supernova could not be linked to any aspect of his lancer mech's performance.

The connection would have been more obvious if he designed a mech armed with an energy weapon. However, the only obvious energy elements his mech contained was the power reactor and the flight system.

"I'm not sure if something as abstract as a theme can even affect the performance of these systems in any way."

Ves was basically flying blind in this regard.

What he did know was that his themes were definitely influencing the character of the living mech. His lancer mech's spiritual foundation became more extreme as it veered into a specific direction.

The supernova theme was only a part of the equation.

As a mech that was meant to rely on an external factor to guide its attacks, Ves also incorporated Ylvaine as a theme!

To be more precise, he split it into two different forms in order to finetune the character of his living mech even further.

Divine Guidance was a relatively straightforward transplantation of the Guided Aim ability of the Transcendent Punisher.

Unlike with his heavy artillery mech, Prophetic Guidance was more than just a triggered ability. His lancer mech embodied this concept down to its very roots!

Even without actively channeling this ability, his lancer mech should still convey at least some hints from Ylvaine. This was mainly meant as a backup solution if the mech pilot resisted Ylvaine's presence.

The relationship between the mech pilot and his competition mech was a persistent concern to Ves. How well would they be able to get along? How open-minded was the mech pilot towards religion and towards Ylvaine in particular?

If he had the bad luck of getting paired with a militant atheist, or worse, a strong believer in a different faith, then the two might object to each other to such a strong degree that they created anti-synergy!

"I have to mitigate this risk as much as possible!"

His solution? Design his competition mech in a way that did its best to appeal to the mech pilot!

Perhaps in another context, what Ves was attempting to accomplish might be construed as brainwashing, but he didn't think he was doing anything of the sort. He merely sought to facilitate a friendly exchange between a strongly-opinionated mech and the mech pilot it was interfacing.

If the mech pilot wasn't receptive towards the gospel conveyed by the mech, then he or she could block it whenever he wished.

Ves didn't want that to happen, though.

"The more the mech and mech pilot diverge from each other, the harder it is for them to cooperate in battle."

In order to encourage a mech pilot who was completely unfamiliar with the Great Prophet to embrace this holy figure, Ves adopted a third theme that was completely geared towards addressing this priority.

He called it Submission to Ylvaine. It was a rather clunky and unpleasant-sounding label for a theme, but Ves couldn't come up with anything better.

Submission to Ylvaine certainly described what a part of his lancer mech was all about.

It wasn't only about exerting as much power in an instant as possible.

It wasn't only about guiding its lance to the right target either.

The third theme that affected the character of his competition mech centered about converting strangers to the Ylvainan Faith!

By embracing it as a core theme, Ves not only made sure that it became a strong influence on the mech pilot of his competition entry, but also tried to expand it so that it could affect others!

More specifically, he wanted to turn Submission to Ylvaine into a detrimental influence towards the opponent of his mech.

"It's like a suppressive glow."

To be honest, Ves didn't think it would work. It was impossible to convert a mech pilot to a faith that was wordlessly being espoused by an enemy mech!

What Ves was actually aiming for was disturbing the opposing mech pilot's mental balance.

Just like how constant nagging could disrupt someone's concentration, Ves hoped that the proselytizing glow of his lancer mech would act as a negative influence on his opponents!

"It certainly works on me, so why can't it work on other people?" Ves chuckled.

If the annoying Ylvainan glow caused an enemy mech pilot to perform just 1 percent worse than normal, then it was already worth the effort of incorporating this theme into his lancer mech design!

Slowly but surely, his lancer mech's spiritual design gained definition. The interplay between the three different themes produced a spiritual character that was a lot more complex than any single theme.

Ves deliberately didn't exert much control on how they blended together. He felt it was better to let them find a balance on their own. He did this to retain the organic nature of his living mech.

Soon enough, his design neared completion. Ves glanced at the clock and saw that he was still on schedule.

"I need to finalize this mech quickly."

He wanted to take one additional step before he moved on to the fabrication stage.

He looked down to his side, only to observe an empty tool belt.

"Of course."

Just like any other contestant, he wasn't allowed to bring any weapons or gadgets onto the competition stage.

There was no way he could pass his Hammer of Brilliance through the security checks, so he simply passed it and the rest of his gear to Nitaa for safekeeping.

Nonetheless, Ves still began to smirk.

"I don't actually need a hammer."

He concentrated on his permanent spiritual connection to Vulcan and drew onto his power!

He slowly raised his fist, which faintly began to glow to bronze.

Without thinking about how silly he would look, Ves decisively punched his own head!